1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile terminals. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mobile terminal for displaying a rich text document comprising conditional code for identifying advertising information stored locally or on the Internet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Mobile terminals, such as handheld computers, cellular phones, tablet computers, etc., may be used to view rich text documents, such as web pages from Internet web sites, email messages with embedded images, and PDF files. The mobile terminal may be used to view rich text documents downloaded from the Internet directly, or that have been cached in the local memory of the mobile terminal during a synchronization session. FIG. 1 shows a prior art configuration for synchronizing a mobile terminal 2 to a target computer 4 over a direct, wired connection 6 (e.g., a USB connection). The target computer 4 downloads rich text documents such as web pages from selected web sites off the Internet and transmits the web pages to the mobile terminal 2. The user is then able to view the web pages on the mobile terminal 2 while away from the target computer, such as while traveling. However, the web pages stored in the mobile terminal 2 may eventually become outdated and need to be refreshed through another synchronization session with the target computer 4. If the user is away from the target computer 4, the mobile terminal 2 must be synchronized remotely.
FIG. 2 shows prior art configurations for remotely synchronizing the mobile terminal 2 to the target computer 4 via the Internet 8. In one configuration, the mobile terminal 2 accesses the Internet 8 over a wired connection 10 (e.g., telephone lines) and an Internet service provider (ISP) 12. In another configuration, the mobile terminal 2 accesses the Internet over a wireless network such as a cellular provider network (CPN) 14 or a short range wireless access point (WAP) 15, such as Bluetooth, 802.11b, or HomeRF. In either case the bandwidth of the communication channel is typically much less as compared to the bandwidth of the direct, wired connection as in FIG. 1, thereby increasing the latency in accessing the data as well as decreasing battery life. Further, a CPN 14 typically charges a higher connection fee. It is therefore desirable to minimize the amount of information exchanged between the mobile terminal 2 and the target computer 4 when synchronizing remotely in order to minimize the synchronization time, conserve battery power, and minimize the connection fees.
Similarly, it is desirable to minimize the amount of information transmitted to the mobile terminal 2 while browsing the Internet over a low bandwidth (and potentially expensive) connection such as a wireless connection. The prior art has suggested to cache static information associated with a web site within the mobile terminal 2 and transmit only the dynamic information to reduce the amount of data transmitted to the mobile terminal. However, advertising information in this context is considered dynamic information since it is updated on a periodic basis (e.g., banner ads are rotated).
FIG. 3 illustrates a prior art mobile terminal displaying advertising information in the form of banners 16A and 16B which may be any geometric shape (e.g., rectangular or square) and which typically comprise an image such as a .JPG or .GIF image file. When the user clicks on the banner, a web page is displayed having information related to the product or service advertised. Although the banners are typically compressed, they contain a relatively large number of bytes as compared to other web page content such as text. Banner ads are also evolving into larger formats with richer content, such as animated .GIF files, which consume even more memory. The click-through rate of banner advertising is also typically very low (e.g., less than two percent) although still high enough to justify the expense for advertisers. Thus, bandwidth is consumed to transmit the banner ads to the mobile terminal during a remote synchronization or wireless browsing session even though a majority of the time the user will not click on the banner ads.
Yet another drawback associated with banner advertising is the delay associated with downloading the banners from banner servers. Many Internet web sites use an advertising agency to “serve” the banners with the site's content. This minimizes the overhead associated with managing banner advertising while still generating revenue for the web site. Each time the web site displays a web page, a banner is downloaded from a banner server of the advertising agency and displayed within the web page. However, the banner servers are often saturated with thousands of requests to serve banners, thereby delaying the transmission of the web page to the user.
There is, therefore., a need to enhance the performance in transmitting information to a mobile terminal, particularly with respect to synchronizing remotely or browsing the Internet wirelessly, so as to minimize the access latency, conserve battery power, and minimize connection fees.